Cobra's bits (Posts about catz)

I demand banana fly!

Cobra — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 15:25:45 GMT

Luca expects me to throw his beloved banana for the quadrillionst time. 😅

Strategic location

Cobra — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 15:59:31 GMT

Last Friday, a record was broken: 38.9°C in Berlin. We've got five (5) fans working day and night, but it was a lost battle from the very beginning. At least they helped us to dissipate the 8 liters of mineral water we've consumed over the day...

I always wonder how the cats manage. Without being able to sweat, all they can do is to breath rapidly and to search for a cooler place.

Interestingly, the individual wellness zone differs greatly from cat to cat. Indy was hiding in such narrow, secluded spaces that I could not possibly get a decent photograph. Luca, on the other hand, decided to place himself right at the entrance of our bathroom, below the Noren serving as visual separation during the hottest days of the year:

Season color

Cobra — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 17:00:43 GMT

An early morning shot of the norway maple just outside my study. Together with a freshly pressed orange juice followed by good coffee, and watching my cats watching the birds in the tree, the world doesn't seem such a hostile place after all.

Highlander

Cobra — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 15:31:39 GMT

No, this is not about the movie, but about Indy's new friend. Luca is a black-golden Highlander, a breed of cats which you can find in Wikipedia only when looking for British Longhair, a name which doesn't do them any justice. Luca is gaining weight even faster than Indy, and the moment at which Indy cannot simply wrestle him to the ground with one paw and then sit on his face is not too far. 😄

Panthera uncia pumilus

Cobra — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:56:32 GMT

Name:           Indy [1]
Sex:            Male
Age:            1 year
Weight:         4.9 kg [2]
Jump height:            1.50 m
Jump reach:     2 m
Eye color:      Indigo
Occupation:     Privatier
Favors:         Venison, Lamb, Beef
Dislikes:       Chicken, Turkey
Loves:          sunny Sundays at the window, rainy Mondays in the hammock
Appearance:     cute as a button
Character:      pure gold

[1]
[2]

Growth

Cobra — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:58:48 GMT

Every now and then I pick up Indy and step on our balance to check his weight. The results are displayed in the figure below.

The thick, light blue line is the result of a linear fit, revealing a weekly weight increase of about 140 g. A deviation from linearity is not yet apparent. That's why the second fit by a logistic function (thin dark blue line) and the resulting prediction of a final weight of about 6 kg is not very accurate at the moment.

Here's the gnuplot script generating this figure:

set terminal svg size 600,400 dynamic enhanced fname 'palatino' fsize 12 solid
set output 'indyweight.svg'
set xlabel "date"
set ylabel "weight (kg)"
set xtics nomirror
set ytics nomirror
set style line 1 ps 1.5 pt 4 lc -1
set style line 2 lw 8 lc 8
set style line 3 lw 2 lc 6
set key right bottom
set xdata time
set timefmt "%d.%m.%y"
set xrange ["11.07.11":"27.11.11"]
toffset=strptime("%d.%m.%y","18.07.11")
linear(x) = a + b*(x-toffset)
c = 5; d = 0.1; e = 3e-9
logistic(x) = c/(1 + d*exp(-e*(x-toffset)))
fit linear(x) "/home/cobra/Documents/indy" using 1:2 via a,b
fit logistic(x) "/home/cobra/Documents/indy" using 1:2 via c,d,e
gain = 1000*7*24*60*60*b
finalweight = c
set label "linear gain: %g g/week", gain at graph  0.02, graph  0.95
set label "predicted final weight: %g kg",  finalweight at graph  0.02, graph  0.9
plot "/home/cobra/Documents/indy" using 1:2 notitle with points ls 1, linear(x) with line ls 2, logistic(x) with lines ls 3

Update: For some reason, webkit-based browsers such as Chromium don't handle the particular svg above correctly, but add huge upper and lower margins. I thus have replaced it for the moment with a png.

Resolution

Cobra — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:06:35 GMT

True to my word, I've acquired a camera to be able to document Indy's growth and progress in appropriate detail. You are the judge, of course, but I admit that I'm very happy with the first snapshots. 😊

Catz

Cobra — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:16:22 GMT

Some of you know already, but some of you don't. Cookie, my cat of so many summers, has left us at 6/6/11. RIP, my boy.

Deceased pets are usually processed in the Tierkörperbeseitigungsanstalt. Sounds like straight from the Third Reich? Well, it is. These industrial-scale, profit-oriented rendering facilities have been renamed in 2005, but what they're doing has remained the same.

Unthinkable.

Fortunately, many feel the same. We found a beautiful place not far from us, a pet cemetery with a meadow surrounded by birches and pines popular with squirrels. The twittering birds create a lively atmosphere, but it is the squirrels with their hectic activity who give the place this busy, happy note. When we visit Cookie, it is mainly their presence which makes us believe in the land over the rainbow.

And otherwise? Well, we couldn't really live very long in a cat-free vacuum…

Meet Indy! Indy is a ragdoll, thus the indigo eyes (yeah, I'll purchase a better camera soon…). He's as sweet as he's smart, and he's growing at an alarming rate. We adore him. 😊

To grow, however, he needs food, and preferably a really good one. I've looked up the vital values of cat food available via the internet (ignoring supermarket brands such as Whiskas, Kitekat, Felix and anything on that level but pretending to be of premium quality). The price you see there is for mid-sized cans. Indy tried already several of those, but is particularly fond of the snacks (labeled E). Kids. 😉

Berlin, 33°C

Cobra — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:31:38 GMT

I planned to post an entry on encryption, but that will have to wait till the next weekend iceage. *teilnamslosdalieg*

Berlin, 32°C

Cobra — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:18:43 GMT